Last week we finally found out just how bad things are at Portlaoise Hospital.

Parents and mothers have been complaining for years about horrific treatment at the hands of staff at the maternity unit there.

After years of red flags being ignored, the Government finally ordered an inquiry to investigate the deaths of five babies at the facility.

But nothing could have prepared readers for how truly harrowing the findings of the HIQA report were.

Dead babies being stuffed into ill-fitting metal boxes, weeping mothers who just lost their infants being told to stop crying as it would upset other mums.

Medieval doesn’t even begin to cover the way vulnerable mothers were treated by staff. Barbaric is probably the more correct term to use.

The details were all the more shocking as these incidents took place within the past 10 years.

Although reading the descriptions, it sounds more like the kind of healthcare you might have expected in Ireland in the 1940s or 50s.

Even more damning than the way patients were treated were the findings that managers at all levels in the HSE were aware of patient safety risks at Portlaoise but failed to act on them.

Five babies died in controversial circumstances and their families had to fight the system to expose why.

While the findings of the report are welcome, it is once again disappointing that no staff members have been held responsible for what happened.

In fact, it has been reported staff who were in senior positions when these scandals occurred have since been promoted.

How can the public have any faith in our hospitals if nobody is ever held to account for catastrophic failings?

We are accustomed to the culture of secrecy and cover-up which is endemic within the HSE but we are talking about the lives of five little babies and nobody has been held to account.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar said yesterday he can’t take any disciplinary action against staff involved because it would expose taxpayers to compensation claims.

He claimed if staff were singled out and disciplined, they could sue the State.

What about bereaved parents who lost their babies – surely they should be first in line for compensation rather than staff who repeatedly ignored warnings about patient safety?

In what has now become a typical response, the HSE has ordered another report to find out who should be held accountable.

This is utter madness and a complete waste of taxpayers’ money. We already have the health watchdog’s report.

Unfortunately like most HIQA reports, while thorough, it doesn’t identify any of the staff responsible for catastrophic failures.

In future cases, HIQA should be allowed to name and shame staff involved.

How else can we learn from what happened at Portlaoise and ensure it doesn’t happen again?

Parents teach three-year-olds that actions have consequences in order for them to change their behaviour.

If actions don’t have any consequences, then behaviour does not change.

Aside from the devastating patient safety issues, the Portlaoise report throws up another issue – the appalling manner in which mothers were treated by staff.

I have not experienced having a baby in Ireland but I have spoken to many friends and family who have.

And while most have received excellent treatment, I’m shocked by some stories I’ve heard.

I’ve spoken to women who have been reduced to tears by gruff midwives and nurses.

Others have complained about staff ignoring patients who are in severe pain and women being left for long periods on their own while in the throes of labour.

Others have been forced to continue with dangerous labours which leave them with horrific injuries and sometimes endanger and distress the baby instead of opting for a safer C-section.

Every woman knows childbirth isn’t going to be a pleasant experience but there seems to be a lack of humanity in the way some healthcare staff approach maternity care here.

A report by Save The Children last week revealed women here are three times more likely to die in childbirth than in Norway.

These aren’t the kind of statistics we should be reading about in a first-world country such as Ireland.

How can we give our children the best possible start in life if we can’t even guarantee their safe arrival in our hospitals?

It’s time the Health Minister acknowledged there is a serious problem with maternity care here and ensured those who fail to meet adequate standards are held to account.

Stop rewarding those who fail in the HSE with pay rises and promotions.

If Mr Varadkar allows the current situation to continue, more babies will die and Ireland will slip further down the charts for childbirth safety.

We can’t allow this report to become just another in a long line of HSE inquiries that end up gathering dust in an office somewhere.

The families of the five babies who died at Portlaoise deserve more than that.

Fearne Cotton leaving the after party (Image: Splash)

Fearne Cotton has joined a long list of celebrities who are labouring under the belief that Ireland is part of the UK.

The BBC presenter obviously missed the history class on our war of independence from Britain and the 1916 Rising.

Fearne has been receiving flak for travel feature for Red Magazine where she wrote about a great “UK break” she enjoyed “just outside Dublin.”

The star said it was great she could “jump in my Land Rover and drive there.”

Presumably she missed the signs alerting her to the fact that she had crossed an international border when she entered the Republic of Ireland!

Nepalese rescue team officials and a sniffer dog search for survivors at a collapsed house in Kathmandu (Image: Getty Images)

Sometimes the world is just too cruel.

As Nepal struggles to recover from a devastating earth quake two weeks ago, another huge quake hit yesterday.

Some buildings which had managed to escape the first disaster collapsed under the pressure of a second tremor and shock-waves that followed.

Hats off to the aid workers, including many Irish, who are working tirelessly with Oxfam and Goal, to help those affected.

They are risking their lives to help others and deserve any support people can afford to give them.

Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes, Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw, Kim Cattrall as Samantha Jones and Kristin Davis as Charlotte York in “Sex and the City 2” (Image: New Line Productions)

Sarah Jessica Parker set the hearts of Sex and the City fans racing yesterday when she posted a picture of herself filming on outside Bloomingdales in New York-a shop frequented by her famous Carrie Bradshaw character.

The actress has hinted that filming has started on a much anticipated third movie of the hit show.

SJP wrote: “Well. I guess the cat’s out of the (little brown) bag. As usual, we will keep you posted on every detail as we are able. I’m under strict gag order until then.”

What was contained in the little brown bag remained a mystery but it’s safe to say it’s probably expensive designer dress or bag that no ordinary woman could ever afford.